1980

The Miami Herald experimented with videotex.

Fifteen cents was the predominant single-copy price for dailies.

The Associated Press was set to install 400 satellite earth stations to transmit news to clients.

The Privacy Protection Act of 1980 required police to use subpoenas in seeking materials from members of the press.

U.S. Supreme Court ruled that criminal trials must be open to the public and press absent an "overriding interest" for closure.

ANPA formed a working group to create Standard Advertising Units.

At least 23 ombudsmen worked at U.S. newspapers.

1981

The U.S. Supreme Court decided that states may open courtrooms to television, radio and still photography.

Westchester Rockland Newspapers Inc. in White Plains, N.Y., was producing 600 electronically paginated pages a week.

Tribune Co. bought the Chicago Cubs.

Reporter Janet Cooke admitted fabricating The Washington Post's Pulitizer Prize-winning story about an 8-year-old heroin addict.

IBM introduced its PC.

Cable News Network Founder Ted Turner told attendees at the ANPA Convention, "Newspapers as we know them today will be gone within the next 10 years, or certainly playing a very reduced role."

1982

To settle an antitrust suit brought by the Justice Dept. against AT&T, a consent decree specified that AT&T spin off its 22 local-telephone companies while keeping its long-distance service and not serve as an information publisher over its own lines for at least seven years, among other provisions.

Morning circulation of daily newspapers surpassed evening circulation for the first time.

The National Endowment for the Humanities began a project to record, index and preserve surviving issues of newspapers published in the United States since 1690.

Gannett launched USA Today.

1983

Four case studies showed successful papers with household penetration rates of 82-to-96 percent.

AT&T filed its reorganization plan in federal court, where a judge approved the plan creating the Baby Bells.

The San Diego News and Tribune offered free classified ads to job seekers, and 13.8 percent of those who advertised got jobs.

The flexographic newspaper press was introduced.

The Portland (Maine) Press Herald and Evening Express added a Universal Product Code scanner bar to their flags.

Students in 47 states and four Canadian provinces participated in the first Newspaper In Education Week.

1984

An American Society of Newspaper Editors survey revealed 5.8 percent of newsroom employees were minorities.

Dailies were read in three-fourths of U.S. households and by two-thirds of U.S. adults.

Newspapers were asked to adopt Standard Advertising Units, and by the end of the year, 1,396 dailies had done so.

An ANPA Board policy statement opposed government agents posing as members of the press.

Apple introduced the Macintosh computer.

1985

ANPA Foundation promoted observance of the 250th anniversary of the Zenger libel trial, in which truth was first established as a defense.

ANPA Foundation added enhancing minority opportunities in newspapering to its mission statement.

Presstime sponsored its first early morning "Fun Run" at ANPA's Annual Convention in Miami.

AP Bureau Chief Terry Anderson was kidnapped in Beirut.

America Online was founded.

1986

Editors discussed ethical dilemmas involved in covering AIDS.

ANPA opposed an American Medical Association request that Congress ban tobacco-product ads.

Knight Ridder began PressLink, digitally transmitting graphics and data to be shared by the group's newspapers.

Publishers found the cost of liability insurance, when they could get it, skyrocketing.

Quark Inc. developed QuarkXPress page-layout software.

1987

The 5-percent tax on services, including advertising services, was barely 10 weeks old on Sept. 18 when Florida Gov. Bob Martinez declared it a "mistake" and called for repeal. There were 434 independently owned dailies in the United States. The first audiotex systems were developed. Desktop publishing was enhancing profitability of weeklies and attracting entrepreneurs. U.S. daily newspaper circulation peaked at 62,826,273.

1988

ANPA's mailing list revealed 959 different newspaper job titles.

Publishers pioneered adult literacy campaigns.

An Association survey found minorities made up 16.1 percent of the newspaper workforce; 37 percent of workers were women.

Circulation and readership issues led ANPA member concerns.

Forty U.S. and Canadian newspapers employed ombudsmen.

A survey found decreasing use of victim names and addresses in newspaper crime stories.

1989

With editors using desktop software and personal computers for pagination, ANPA began offering a "Desktop Newspaper Publishing Seminar."

Nine North American mills produced newsprint from recycled newspapers.

ANPA started a job-information hot line to increase the number of minorities in the newspaper business.

ARPANET became the Internet, and Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.

Adobe Corp. developed Photoshop photo-editing software.

1990

Two studies showed no adverse links between VDTs and pregnancy outcomes.

The Society of Environmental Journalists formally organized.

In Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., the U.S. Supreme Court removed blanket libel protection for opinions.

The ANPA Board visited Berlin, Prague and Budapest to explore the emerging free press in Europe.

The Americans with Disabilities Act became law.

Hoechst AG introduced the first promising computer-to-plate system.

U.S. Sunday newspaper circulation peaked at 62,634,512.

1991

The 200th anniversary of the enactment of the First Amendment was marked by a variety of newspaper events.

An April survey found 115 daily newspapers online.

The predominant single-copy prices for daily and Sunday newspapers reached 35 cents and $1, respectively; the most common price for a daily had held at 25 cents for nine years, and for a Sunday, 75 cents for three years.

Judge Harold Greene ruled in July that regional Bell operating companies may enter the information-services marketplace.

AP Bureau Chief and hostage Terry Anderson was released in Lebanon.

1992

The Oregonian in Portland announced that it would no longer use sports-team names such as Redskins, Redmen, Braves and Indians, which some Native Americans found offensive.

The Federal Communications Commission relaxed rules on radio ownership.

The Toronto Star installed new presses that accommodate a 50-inch newsprint web.

Members of ANPA, NAB and five marketing associations voted to merge into the Newspaper Association of America.

Kodak and the Associated Press introduced digital photography to newspapers.

1993

Presstime unveiled a new design.

The Orange County Register became the first newspaper to offer subscribers a credit card.

NAA and INFE announced development of a Standard Advertising Invoice.

Two foundations launched the two-year public-journalism Project on Public Life and the Press.

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved a model Uniform Correction or Clarification of Defamation Act that established standards for corrections or retractions to pre-empt libel suits and limit damages.

1994

The U.S. Department of Justice approved NAA's plan to create a Newspaper National Network to sell national advertising in specific categories.

Ten free-lancers sued five companies, including two newspapers, for reproducing their work in electronic form without paying for it.

NAA established a task force on digital-ad transmission.

Unity '94 in Atlanta was the first joint meeting of four ethnic-journalist associations.

WIFAG installed the first totally shaftless newspaper press.

The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C. and the San Jose Mercury News became the first newspapers published on the World Wide Web.

1995

The 100th anniversary of newspaper comics was celebrated.

NAA's new World Wide Web site was named one of the best on the Web by the Software Publishers Association.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations 1995 U.S. Coupon Forum marked 100 years of cents-off coupons.

NAA created the New Media Federation to give the industry a central point of contact for dealing with the problems and promises of new media.

1996

A coalition of Internet ad agencies announced that its members would stop resizing ads that don't match five standards used by top Web sites.

The Small-Business Job Protection Act defined newspaper carriers and distributors as direct sellers, ending years of Internal Revenue Service disputes over independent-contractor status.

Newspaper groups celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act.

The AP unveiled a 24-hour Internet news service, The Wire.

NAA produced a paper discussing potential date-related computer problems when the year 2000 begins.

1997

Goss Graphic Systems announced a digital offset concept press.

Executives from the NAA Online Advertising Task Force agreed to adopt guidelines for ad-banner sizes on their World Wide Web sites.

NAA moved its headquarters from Reston, Va., to Vienna, Va.

For the first time, retail and national advertisers spent more money on newspaper inserts than on run-of-paper advertising.

NAA kicked off the first newspaper-industry ad campaign, "It all starts with newspapers."

1998

NAA published its first Competitive Media Index, a comparison of newspaper audiences in major markets with audiences of other media.

While the public gave high marks to media coverage of the Clinton/ Lewinsky scandal, or "Interngate," they also gave ombudsmen an earful.

NAA's Classified Advertising Standards Task Force sought a standard format for elements of online-classified ads.

The NAA Board of Directors approved development of the Newspaper Industry Communications Center to ease the flow of information among advertisers, ad agencies, newspapers and third parties.

1999

Newspaper organizations including NAA and ASNE announced an industrywide initiative to increase newspaper readership.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that law-enforcement officials who take journalists along to a home on official business violate the home dwellers' right to privacy under the Fourth Amendment.

The NAA Board of Directors approved its first comprehensive statement on diversity, urging the industry to better reflect society in its workforce.

Reporters, editors and photographers who work on the Internet formed the Online News Association.